Avalanche roll over Blue Jackets 5-1

NHL.com

With his team battered and banged-up, Colorado coach Joe Sacco was more than happy to welcome some reinforcements.

David Jones scored twice in his first game back after a hand injury and two former Columbus prospects scored 6:15 apart in the second period as the Avs beat the Blue Jackets 5-1 on Friday night.

The Avs are missing starting goaltender Craig Anderson, four regular defensemen and a couple of forwards. Jones had missed two games with a hand injury but made a big impact in his return.

"It's a nice way to get yourself back in the lineup," Sacco said. "I thought Jonesey played well tonight. He played hard. He was physical on the puck. As a result he got rewarded for it with a couple of goals. It was a good game for him."

Greg Mauldin and Philippe Dupuis came back to burn the team that drafted them. Mauldin scored his first NHL goal at 10:57 of the middle period, beating Steve Mason while killing a penalty. Dupuis scored at 17:12 and Paul Stastny made it 4-1 with 9 seconds left in the second period.

Columbus, coming off an 8-1 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday night, opened the scoring when Antoine Vermette scored 4:15 into the game, but that's all the Blue Jackets got. Jones tied it at 6:11 and finished the scoring with sixth of the season at 17:52 of the third period.

"It's frustrating," Mason said. "You win one game and the next one you come out with an effort like this. We had a game plan coming in and we just got away from it and they capitalized on our chances. At the end of the day we are just not doing our jobs."

The Avalanche have beaten the Blue Jackets six straight times, winning of this season's meetings 5-1, and are 27-8-1-1 all-time against Columbus.

"There's something here mental against this team," Jackets coach Scott Arniel said. "You could see it out there again and we saw it in Colorado."

The Avalanche took the lead during a Columbus power play when Jones fed a centering pass into the slot and Mauldin fired it past Mason on the stick side.

"In the second period we dominated them until that goal," Arniel said.

Mauldin, who played six games with the Blue Jackets in 2003-04 and one with the New York Islanders last season, was recalled from the AHL's Lake Erie Monsters on Thursday because the Avalanche have eight regulars injured.

"It was huge, especially at that point of the game, too," Mauldin said. "Individually, I've been waiting for this since I was six years old. It's nice to get it off my back. It's a little bit better doing it against my old team. It's just nice to come back and play again in the National Hockey League."

Sacco said Mauldin earned his shot with the Avs.

"It's always nice to see a guy that put in time in the American Hockey League get rewarded," Sacco said. "As an organization, we try to reward guys based on merit with their play down in the American Hockey League. They deserve a chance to get called up."

Dupuis, who had his first NHL goal Nov. 6 against Dallas, crashed the net and rammed a feed from John-Michael Liles between Mason's pads as he crashed into the goaltender. The goal stood after a review.

"We felt that (Mason) got pushed back into the net and under the rules you can't push a goalie into the net," Arniel said. "The referee said that he saw the puck (cross the goal line). Our feeling was he was pushed into the net by a Colorado player. The referee said he saw the puck in the net and it's tough to overrule that."

Dupuis was a fourth-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2003, but never played for them.

"I'm glad I got one tonight," Dupuis said. "Nothing against them. I don't hold any grudges against them."